Re: Cars make more economic sense than transit: fact

["The Gardners" <gardners@ihug.com.au>]

Amen! I still prefer driving towards public transport. Inside my car I can
be the nicest, most courteous prick on the road. People can safely cross the
street, overtake me, merge, etc. It really makes towards a great day and
that picture of an idealic world and the assholes you do meet are easily
shrugged off.

Public transport...I can't be the nice guy anymore because people never
respond kindly to you or at all!
It's all, "This is MY personal air space, that means NO talking to me, NO
looking at me, NO interaction at all!"
I live in the western suburbs around Gisborne on several acres in a 4 year
old upmarket home and it's a wonderful friendly country atmosphere but when
I go into the city people don't smile!
It's all heads down and don't look forward and don't look back. Get to where
you're going and get back with great haste! Common courtesy takes a back
seat.

Car's are a luxury and I use mine because I love the pleasures of driving
and now with 2 country stations in Melbourne, I'm wrapped!

Al Gardner

Brendan W wrote in message <37969B0A.D6C7A10@nospam.com>...
>Iskandar Baharuddin wrote:
>> qldspeed wrote:
>> > On Mon, 19 Jul 1999 10:59:21 +1100, David Bromage
>> > <dbromage@omni.com.au> wrote:
>> > >Mark Gibson wrote:
>> All snipped without disrespect.
>
>> The "studies" of the advantages of public transport invariably
>> leave out one key factor: the value of the time of the
>> passenger.
>
>> When someone comes up with a public transport systems that goes
>> where I want to go when I want to go, and fast, I will happily
>> sell the car.
>
>Very true. Where I live a train station is about a 10 minute level
>walk from my house. My work is 25 minutes by train then a another
>5 minute walk to the office. The problem is that trains only stop
>at my station twice an hour! Even though about twice as many
>trains as this pass through. This means that if I do not order
>my life exactly according to the sparse train availability when
>getting ready to go to work or coming home, I can easily end up
>wasting a further half hour waiting for a train that actually
>stops at my station. That makes the total journey time to be
>anything between 40 mins and 1 hour 10 minutes. Plus it costs
>me $5 something for the train ticket.
>
>If I drive (which I do), it takes me 20 minutes to drive, and
>5 minutes to walk from where I park to the office. Total travel
>time = 25 minutes no matter *what* time I depart either way. And
>this is the case for someone who lives within walking distance
>of a railway station, ie, no buses or any BS like that! I am
>really not suprised so many people choose to drive instead.
>Given that I would own my car anyway the cost of petrol and wear
>and tear of each trip to work is less than $5 btw.
>
>Of course the other big thing that the public transport "studies"
>forget is that many of us actually *enjoy* the driving experience,
>ie, we are enthusiasts. I *like* driving my car, I derive
>pleasure from it, I like listening to the stereo in my car and
>I enjoy the personal freedom of being able to go where I want
>when I want. I would never live without a car. And this of course
>is where the economic arguments fall down - even if public
>transport was good enough for all of us to willingly commute to
>work and home this way, most of us would still own a car,
>therefore the cost of car ownership plus the cost of commutable
>public transport has to work out cheaper than the cost car
>ownership plus the extra cost of car commuting, or else it is
>in reality more expensive.
>
>
>Regards,
>
>--
>Brendan Walker
>'96 EFII XR8 Falcon
>_bjw_ AT _cisco_ DOT _com_ (to email decode and remove the "_"'s)